Let the training begin!

In preparation for training for my half marathon, I need to address my knee issues that I've had for years now.  I keep re-injuring my knee, over and over and it gets in the way of my exercise.  I called my MD for an appointment for today to get bloodwork done (I'm out of thyroid meds today I just noticed), and to have her look at my knee, so we can get some xrays done and pass me along to whoever can fix the problem.

I went to an orthopedist a year or two ago, and it was when I had first injured it.  He told me to take it easy, use the exercise bike to strengthen it, and if it didn't get better, to see him again.  It didn't really bother me for a long time, but then I re-injured it (a few times), because it's weak from prior injuries, and weak from all that weight I carried around for so many years (and the extra weight I'm still carrying around), so it's just a big wimpy mess.

I think I will probably need physical therapy, and I want my MD or PT to monitor my training.  I'm hoping to come out of the training with a stronger knee - I certainly don't want to do additional damage.  I know every lb I lose will make a difference in my recovery, so I'm glad to be doing the biggest loser challenge that Alison is arranging.  That will make weight loss fun!

My MD will have a loaded plate with me there today, between my flu, knee and thyroid, but I'm sure she can handle it.  ;)  I can't believe they could see me today - they must have had several last minute cancellations - typical of the holiday season.  Good for me.

Visualize whirled peas

Remember that smart alecky bumper sticker?  Visualize whirled peas?  LOL

As I've mentioned before, I think visualization is a very helpful tool.  I've been nasty sick the past few days, so I haven't done anything to lose weight.  I don't know what I put on while I was visiting my family, but I know it was enough to make my loose pants feel tighter.  I weighed myself today, and I was down to my recent highest - which I guess if you count Christmas vacation, is not my recent highest anymore, but since I didn't weigh myself, we'll just ignore that.  The weight is gone, no harm, no foul.  ;-)

I've been spending a lot of my sick hours thinking about my next moves.  I'm very excited to start training for the half marathon.  I already have that planned out, but I will adjust depending on my knees and how my body responds.  I already know I can do 3 miles fairly easily, so that's where I'm going to start.  3 miles, every other day, for 2 weeks.  Then I add miles on as I go, and the week before I do the 13.1 mile run, I plan to do 15 miles, that way the 13.1 will seem easy.  :)

I can see myself crossing the finish line.  I can see myself in the gym, every day, working out hard.  I can see myself getting down to a fighting weight.  I like what I see.  I see beyond that too - I see myself doing new things I've never done like surfing...or wearing an outfit that I liked, and not worrying about bad angles.  ;-)  I see myself healthy and fit, and living a life I barely recognize right now...and I can't wait.

Sorry I've been absent

Please forgive me for missing nearly a week of blogging!  I have not been feeling well.  I started coming down with something 2 weeks ago this past Sunday when we returned from Dallas, and I finally felt it coming on strong on Christmas day.  By the 26th, I felt full blown sick, so I upgraded our tickets to first class (thank heavens!!), and we spent the last day with my family, ensuring each of them a fair opportunity to catch my germs.  Now my sister is sick as a dog too.  (sorry!!!!)

I have spent the past 2 days, since I've been home, sleeping, reading and watching tv.  That's it.  I feel like a gross, sick, germ blob.  Today I feel ever so slightly better than yesterday, so I'm hoping I'm on my way to health.  I'm *really* hoping this thing doesn't turn into pneumonia, which I really feared yesterday when I felt it go into my chest.  I think the fact that I've been bundled up inside has helped me a lot, so I'm going to take the time off from work that I need, and I'm not going back until I'm well.  If I go back when I start to feel better, but I'm not all the way better, I'll just get even more sick. 

I have learned a thing or two these past few years that I've been sick constantly.

;-)

That is all the news that's fit to print.

Stay healthy, gang!

Who does these???

When I started losing weight and getting into shape, I decided I wanted to be a triathlete.  Then I realized what that entailed:  2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running...all in one day, and in under 17 hrs.  I'm sorry, huh?  Who can do that??????

Apparently, anyone.

Last night, I watched the Biggest Loser "Where are they now?" show.  Some people kept it off, some didn't (an interesting theme is that the ones who are doing the best are the ones that are teaching fitness or have somehow incorporated fitness and wellness into their lives...reason #4 why I'm thinking of buying a gym), but one guy who had gained some weight back decided to do a triathalon.  He was a pretty big boy, even though much smaller than he was initially, and God bless him, he gave it his all.

He ended up finishing 3 minutes after the deadline, so technically, he didn't complete it, but WHAT.EVER.  His endurance was amazing.  The fact that someone obese could even possibly complete that physical challenge was astounding to me.

We always hear about how we have to be so careful about exercise, and consulting with physicians, and heart attacks, and maybe that is all very true, but the side we never hear about is that our bodies are WAY more resilient than we think.  If this big guy can complete a triathalon, I really believe that I can too someday.

I'm not going to take all that on now - LOL - but my first goal will be a half marathon.  I think that's an attainable goal, a good challenge and a big step for me.  I never do more than 3 or 4 miles on the treadmill, but I know I can.  If I had to do a half marathon today, I know I could do it.  It would be unpleasant because I'm out of shape, but my body could do it.  With a few months of training, I think I would be in pretty good shape to do it. 

Yes, I have asthma, bad knees and a bad back, but if they can do it, I can do it.  That's one of the coolest parts of the show - the fact that it inspires some of the people watching it to reach for new heights.  If you are told all your life that you can't do something because of the way you are, you are just going to assume it's true.  I think our bodies can do more than we think, and that is an exciting thought for me.

Children's Hospital at Dartmouth has a half marathon scheduled for 8/29/09.  Since TJ has me at my goal weight by then, it should be a great date to aim for.  Who's with me?????  :)

Fill me up!

My, isn't this clinical!

Alas, I have scheduled a fill.  In anticipation of a holiday visit filled with dieting tips from my parents (love you guys!), I'm glad I can answer them with a plan of action.  I will be getting a fill on 1/5/10.  It will be my first fill in almost a year and a half.  It's been a weird run, but I'm really hoping this does the trick to help me stay back on track. 

Lately, my appetite has been growing, and I find myself able to eat more and more and more.  I don't know why it's just been happening now, but I don't care either.  It is, and I need a fill, and I'm getting one. 

No, I'm not thrilled to go in there weighing 35 lbs more than I did the last time I was there.  My surgeon was always so proud of me every time I saw him, and now I'll just be like all the other bad students who gained.  Actually, what has happened to me is exactly what he predicted.  He said most people lose 60% of their total weight they have to lose, and then end up gaining 20-30 lbs back from their lowest point.  So there, I did just that.  Good for me.  And truly, I had lost 75% of my total weight to lose, and bounced up the 20-30 from that point.  Let's try to get him to focus on that.  ;-)

There were other times during the year when I needed a fill, and I avoided getting one because I was upset with myself for gaining.  However, I don't want to gain anymore from this new high point I've reached in the past few months, so I'm facing the music, and getting the help I need.

Phat, dumb and happy

That's me.  I'm sorry I missed a week on this blog - yikes!  In addition to being very busy, I'm sharing my office at work with my assistant until hers is ready, so I don't have access to my computer as much as usual.  Also, I haven't been feeling well since the plane ride home last Sunday.  I've been fighting something off, but just feeling really run down, sick to my stomach off and on, achy, sniffly, and tired.  I haven't been exercising, and I've been eating WAY too much comfort food.  I'm back to my high point again.  Hooray!

LOL - at least I got there by eating delicious french cuisine, that I mentioned in my other blog.  ;-)

I feel super duper fat today.  Have you ever had those days when it just feels like your fat is growing and growing?  I feel fatter every minute, and it's quite unpleasant.  I know I need to focus on my health, not just losing weight, but getting to the bottom of why I'm sick all the time.  I do think I'm allergic to this house, and hopefully after the holidays, we can get someone in here to do some testing and then hopefully get rid of the mold that is probably making me sick constantly.

I'm also ready for a fill.  For a while, I was having trouble eating normal things, but that time has passed, and I definitely need a fill.  Every time I call the office, they aren't open.  I just called right now, and they aren't in until 10.  If I called at 8, they wouldn't be in until 9.  If I called at 3, they would have been closed for the day.  I don't know what's going on, but I know I need to make more of an effort.

I'm going to schedule a fill for January, and I'm going to try to lose 7-10 lbs by the time I have to fly out on Wednesday.  LOL.

Very active weekend

I even wrestled a bull to the ground!

Amazing, I know.  ;-)

We went to Dallas this weekend, and we were pretty active, walking miles while we were there, but we didn't eat very healthy foods...at all.  We ate out every meal, and although I managed to order a salad for one of my meals, naturally it was a crispy chicken salad with full fat ranch dressing, so we know how healthy that really was.

I'm hoping to lose some weight before I have to travel again next week.  I will try, at least.  It's obviously not the easiest time in the world to lose weight, but I'm also sick of being stuck in the same place and losing the same weight over and over.

I think at the very least, I'm going to plan to exercise every day.  If my eating choices aren't perfect, at least I'll be staying on track in one way. 

Hoooooly Moly!

We watched the biggest loser finale last night.

Here is a picture of Danny Cahill, the winner, before:

And here is a picture of him after:

They don't really tell us exactly how long the entire process takes but I think it's like six months from start to finish, and it may even be less.  If that's the case, than this guy lost 239 lbs in 6 months.  I know that doesn't seem remotely possible, but I think that's what happened.  

Can you believe the difference?  I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw some of these transformations last night.  It was amazing.  Many of them looked awesome...a few looked a little scary, but most of them really looked fantastic.

I hope they do keep the weight off.  We've always been told that losing weight slow is the way to go, and maybe that's true, but if it's not true for everyone, it's good to know there are alternatives out there.  I always think different things work for different people.

I can't believe how differently we view overweight people to fit people. I saw Danny as a completely different person based upon his new look.  Part of it was the weight, but part of it was his darker hair, and just winning countenance that he didn't have before.  He has truly made a jaw dropping transformation (as did runner up Rudy), and I'm really thrilled for them, and so many others who did so well.

The MD behind the show had to speak out against gastric bypass surgery, of course.  I thought that was too bad, because for some, that may be their only option.  Not everyone can go on this reality show, and it's truly not realistic to think that people at home can work out 4-6 hrs/day at that kind of intensity, and with that much support.  Gastric bypass surgery has risks, of course, but obesity has greater risks in most cases.  That's just my opinion...

I must say I was energized by seeing those results!

Yup, I'm dragging...

You probably guessed that since as of 3:30, I still hadn't blogged yet!  I missed yesterday too.  It's been a busy, busy week.

For some reason, I'm completely exhausted today.  I feel weak, sometimes dizzy, and just tiiiiired.  I don't think I slept well, and I've been waking up VERY early lately, so I think it's just catching up with me.

Sadly, that's really all I have to say for now.  LOL - sorry 'bout that.

Awwwwwww

The total weight of these 3 little Yorkie puppies is 6 lbs.  LOL - how cute and teeny tiny are they???  Darcy and I met a little baby Yorkie at the pet store the other day.  He was 10 weeks old, and he weighed about a lb.  He was so little, and absolutely precious.  It's a good thing his pen mate decided to released himself on him because I'm quite sure the offensive oder is the reason Henry doesn't have a baby brother today.  Poor little Harry - I hope they have washed him by now.

I mention the adorable trio, because today, I'm down 6 lbs from my latest high weight.  I've lost 3 lbs this week, and I was far from perfect, but I was definitely better, so it's working, and I'm glad.

I'm having a gross chicken alfredo lean cuisine for breakfast, as I type.  What a nice way to kick start the day.  LOL

I've been working since before 5AM this morning.  I have a lot to do since I was on the road all day yesterday, but I don't want it to cut into my weekend.

Better get back to it - just wanted to share the good news with you two.  ;-)

With a little help off from my friends

Where have all of my blogging budies gone?  I still have some non-weight loss blogs that I read, but I used to have a great routine of reading at least 5 every morning, and if I was going through a hard time, I could find inspiration through someone else's words.

Now I'm down to 2 weight loss blogs - mine and Alison's.  No offense to either of us, but we've both been kind of spinning our wheels for a long time now.  LOL

We're up and down and up and down, and really going nowhere.  Can someone please do something extraordinary and write about it so I can find inspiration again??  That would be great, thanks. 

It's hard having a ton of weight to lose.  It's a loooooooooooooong journey.  Things that work sometimes, don't work at other times, and it's hard to keep momentum up for years at a time.  I can see why most weight loss efforts fail.

As you may be able to surmise from my post, I'm having a struggle getting back on track.  I'm eating okay, but not great.  I'm down my silly four lbs, and I'm not gaining, but I'm not losing.  I'm not exercising either, and I KNOW I need to.  I've been tired and feeling so run down - I'd probably feel better if I just bit the bullet and worked out.

It sounds like a wonderful idea at 7:45 AM - not so appealing at 7PM when I'm collapsing after a very busy day at work.

Anyway, I must turn inward to find inspiration, and Alison and I will keep jogging along on our hamster wheels while you watch us spin.  :)

We interrupt this broadcast...

Sorry - I was sick of looking at those ribs.  It was making me a little queasy.  Please standby for your regularly scheduled programming...

Not a diet food

We bought Henry a new pen so that when we have to leave him for longer lengths of time, he doens't have to stay in his crate, but he'll still be safe.  We wanted to try it out for a short period of time first, so we decided to go out to dinner last night.  We couldn't decide what we wanted, at all, so we ended up going to KC's Rib Shack...very random choice...

I had fried pickles (that were delicious) and 2 ribs.  I felt sick to my stomach, because my body doesn't respond well to junk food.  I don't know why I ate that.  I wasn't feeling well, which never helps my willpower....and I'm not sure why I'm not feeling well.  I was exhausted by 4pm yesterday afternoon.

By 7, I wanted to go to bed.  I held out until 9PM, and then I slept in until 6:30.  I only sleep those long hours when I'm sick.  I'm feeling a bit better this morning, but I still have a stuffy nose, headache, etc...   Oh well, I'm sure it will pass.

Other than that, I had been good with my eating yesterday, so I was the same weight today. 

Today, I'm going to be working late because I have a ton of work to do, and my plan is to finally eat the right amount of calories and see a loss on the scale tomorrow!

Rome wasn't built in a day

Okay, so yesterday wasn't perfect, but I took steps in the right direction.  Sometimes, I try to make drastic changes quicker than I'm ready for them, and it's not always a recipe for success.  I ate much better than I had been, but not as good as I would like to long term.  I didn't exercise either.  I had a terrible headache, and my allergies were making me ill, but I still could have, and I didn't.

I was down 1 lb today.  I think it would have been more like 3 or 4 if I had done all the right things, but 1 lb is 1 step in the right direction.  I'm one lb closer to losing 20 lbs by the new year, and 1 lb closer to hitting my goal weight in 8/12/10.  :)

I'm hoping that today, I'll be even better, and that much closer to my goals tomorrow.

Holiday Weight Gain

I have read various reports claiming the average American gains anywhere from one to 10 lbs over the holidays.  I think the average thin person may gain 1 lb, and the average fat person probably gains 10.  My weight has been fluctuating a lot lately, but I'm up 4 lbs from the average place I've been recently, which means I'm only down 3 lbs from my more recent high weight.

I guess I should be thankful I didn't gain it all back.  Alison blogged about the fact that she lost control over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  I commented that I didn't lose control because I wasn't trying to maintain control.  LOL - I know that's not a good thing.

I ate whatever I wanted, and I didn't really give it much thought.  I don't know why that is - it wasn't a conscious thought...I think in my subconscious, I'm probably just discouraged because nothing I do seems to change my weight lately.

I was talking with someone at work about this today, and she has been doing great with eating healthy, exercise, losing weight, etc..., but over this past weekend, she completely fell back into her bad habits.  She was surprised at how quickly good habits just seem to FLY out the window.

Sadly, there's no surprise for me there.  I worked so hard to change my lifetime of bad habits when I got the lapband, and I made huge changes.  My instincts changed.  The way I thought about food and health changed...and now, 2 years later, my old habits creep back in more and more.

On the way to work, I thought about how at the beginning of this year, I wanted to focus on toning my body.  I was on a great track, and I figured the rest was just going to come off whenever it wanted, so I was going to focus on getting my body as fit as possible.

Rather than doing that, I gained 30 lbs, and let my bad habits back in.  It has been so hard to focus on my health when I've had so many competing priorities.  Between work and school and all of my other projects, I've found myself wondering if I should put my weight loss journey on hold while I focus on things I CAN control.

I don't want to do that, though, because I know that 30 will grow to 60 which will grow to 120, and then I'm just about back where I started.

NO THANK YOU.

The reason why I have so many good things going in my life right now is because I'm healthier than I've been in a long time.  I've lost weight so I'm free to travel and roam about the world.  I have more confidence in business settings because now I'm only regular fat, not cartoon fat.  I don't mind putting myself out there more recording CDs, or being on film for my documentary or my tv show because I've lose a big amount of weight.

I absolutely refuse to go back to the way my life was.  I don't know how I can fit it all in, but I do know I don't have a choice.  Yes, it is annoying when I work so hard and I don't see changes on the scale, but I know that is temporary.  Eventually my body will have to catch up with my actions, and I just need to stick with it to get to that point.

I am 77 lbs away from my goal.  I can do this.  I'm focusing on just today for now.  For today, I know I can make healthy choices and get my exercise in.  I'm not going to worry about tomorrow.  I'm taking it one day at a time.

I'm not going to gain 1 or 10 lbs over the holiday season.  I'm really hoping to be down 20 (from my high point) by the new year.  That will just give me 60 lbs to go to reach my 8/12/10 goal weight as TJ has predicted. 

Normally, I would think that was completely reasonable.  I have a month to lose 17 lbs.  The four that I'm up from last week will be easily gone in a day or two or three, so it's really only 13 lbs to lose in 4 weeks.  If I'm trying hard, that should be no problem.

However, as I've seen recently, my body is confused...probably from all the up and down action.  It doesn't know what to do, and I swear, it thinks I'm bluffing, so it hangs onto the weight, even when I'm perfect for weeks on end.

However, I'm going to push that out of my mind for now, and I'm going to use positive visualization to see the number on the scale as 20 lbs lower than my highest, and my clothes fitting 20 lbs better.  I'm going to envision myself making healthy choices and working out regularly as the lbs come off.

By next August, you won't recognize me.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!  I'm very excited because I *love* thanksgiving dinner, but I'm even more excited because my Mom and Dad are visiting!  I grew up having very traditional thanksgiving meals, and that's how I continue to make holiday meals as an adult.  It's not very exciting or sophisticated of me, but I associate tastes and smells with tradition, and I like remembering holidays from my youth.  They were always very yummy, and sometimes even quite entertaining, depending on the involvement of extended families.  :)

We are having just the four of us tomorrow, so the menu is very simple:

• turkey (free range, antibiotic free, of course!!)
• mom's homemade stuffing
• mashed potatoes (original and cheesy baked)
• green bean casserole
• corn
• turnip
• carrots
• cranberry jelly
• grammy's apple pie
• cheesecake
• pumpkin pie (maybe)

I think that's about it - of course, rolls, bread, gravy, salad, etc...  I feel like I'm forgetting something. 

My Mom has been quite concerned about me pulling this meal off.  It's very funny because I think that thanksgiving dinner is one of the easiest meals to make.  It can be a lot to coordinate, but overall, it's really not that bad.  I've probably hosted at least 10 thanksgiving dinners in my adult life.  A mother worries, though, right?  :)

She asked me the other day if I needed her to email me all the components that go into a Thanksgiving dinner.  LOL - I think I got it.  :)  Today, she asked me if I had sent Darcy to the store yet to get the food for tomorrow's meal.  I teasingly told her that we were waiting until tomorrow morning because the store will be open.  She uttered her best protest, while I kept up the ruse, but I finally broke down and told her that the shopping was already done, and boy was she relieved!

My Mother is very funny.  She is making her delicious apple pie for our meal tomorrow, and they don't fly in until this afternoon.  She decided to make the crust at home and bring it with her on the plane to save time.  I just got a call from my parents saying that they pulled my mother over in airport security due to the foreign substance (uncooked pie crust) that they found in her carry on.  They were going to throw it out, but she begged them not to, so they brought over some sort of tester to make sure it wasn't an explosive substance, and the crust was cleared.

"Well you know," my Mom said to me on the phone, "90% of people don't even make their own pie crust these days so no wonder they didn't even know what it was!"  LOL - hilarious.

This is going to be a very fun holiday, and I'm hoping that portion control will save us all.

:)

...and here we go again...

I am somehow under the weather yet again.  I had the flu shot, so I'm not sure what's up with that.  I didn't have the H1N1 yet - I'm supposed to get that tomorrow, but they won't give it to me if I'm sick.  For work, I'm in the hospital all the time, constantly surrounded by germs.  I should probably wear a mask to work.  LOL

I'm hoping it's just a cold.  On Friday, I started to feel that weird feeling in my chest that I get before I get sick.  It's a little tight, a little bit like a burn, but that's about it.  By Saturday, I wasn't feeling great, and I was outside for hours, which probably didn't help.  We went out for dinner for Alison's birthday, and I had a hard time eating because I was feeling a little sick to my stomach.  Within a few hours, I was totally sick to my stomach, and I headed home.

Yesterady, I needed to work all day, but I found myself on the couch the entire time, achy, lethargic, and just feeling icky.  I didn't take my temperature, but I think I had a fever that broke in the middle of the night when I woke up drenched in sweat.

I feel a little better today than I did yesterday, but I'm just sneezy, with a tickle in my throat, a non-stop runny nose and puffy eyes and face filled with fluids.  Basically, I'm very attractive right now.  I have to be *very* careful monitoring my fever, because if I get a fever again, I cannot come into work.

Since I wasn't able to work yesterday, and with this being a holiday week, I am very behind, and I do not have time to be sick.  I'm going to think good thoughts, take vitamins, get lots of fluids, and hope this thing disappears very quickly!

The new diet food

I am having an extra crazy week this week (believe it or not!), and yesterday was insane.  I decided to drown my frustrations in fat, and I met Darcy for lunch at Pizzeria Uno.  Naught-Y!  If you haven't had Pizza Skins yet, don't.  They are devilishly good.

...Unos buttery crisp deep dish crust filled with mashed potatoes, and topped with melted cheese, bacon, chives and sour cream.  Pure evil.

So I ate those, and then moved onto my personal pan cheese and tomato pizza and then had the leftovers for dinner. 

Naturally, I was down 3 lbs today.  LOL 

Huh?

This is not teaching me a good leasson.  Eat like an angel and workout like crazy and lose nothing, but eat the most fattening food on the planet, skip the workout, and then be down 3 lbs I haven't been able to lose in weeks?  LOL...

I give up!  :)

Competition

As I mentioned, Darcy starts her new job on 11/30.  She'll be working 5-9 Monday - Thursday and a normal day on Fridays.  As a result, we won't be able to workout together during the week.  To stay motivated, I am going to suggest a little friendly competition.

I am sometimes on the competitive side, but Darcy really isn't, so I have to think of something that is worth it for both of us.  I'm thinking that whoever works out more (either times or minutes??  what do you think?) will win for the week.  I was thinking of the prize being related to housework.  The loser has to clean the house, or something like that.

...but I have a feeling if Darcy loses, she'll just tell me she's not doing it.  LOL

Suggestions???

My Big Phat Train to Nowhere

I haven't been eating great these past few days.  I am PMSing (still!), and we need to go grocery shopping (desperately), so we have been eating out a lot.  I haven't worked out in a week.  At first, it was because I hurt my back, but this weekend, I was so busy working around the house, I didn't have time.  I definitely burned a lot of calories, though!

I'm still down the 7 lbs I lost.  My weight fluctuates, and for lots of last week, I was up from there, but I've been back down to those 7 lbs lost for the last few days...which leads me to believe that if I was eating what I'm supposed to, I'd actually be down more...but who knows with my crazy weight fluctuation.

All this talk of food is making me hungry.  Haha.  Yesterday, Darcy and I went out to lunch.  I ordered a steak with mashed potatoes.  The food came out on an extra large plate, and it was honestly absurd.  I think I'll probably get about 5 meals out of it.  Seriously.  I wanted to scold them for having such large portion sizes, but I'm too fat to get away with that...LOL

We are renewing our membership with our trainer, but I'm not sure what the schedule will be now that Darcy is going back to work, and her schedule is evenings.  We can still do Saturday together, but we'll have to go separately during the week.  It's been a saving grace having her there, because every once in a while, I get a few seconds to catch my breath while the trainer is working with her.  When it's just one on one, I know I'm going to die!

Tonight I plan to go swimming, and I can't wait.

Salad: Friend or Foe?

Somewhere along the way, we started equating salads with diet food.  If you go on a diet, you eat salads all the time.  I'm not sure how this happened.  I love salads, but most salads aren't that great for you.  Lettuce, which makes up most salads, has almost no nutritional value, and salad dressing is extremely unhealthy.  Even the low fat/low calorie salad dressings can be a bit dicey. 

Here is the nutrition information for some popular salads that are out there:

Shorty's crispy chicken salad:  1850 calories
Applebees Low fat asian chicken salad:  900 calories
Houlihans Chinese Chicken Salad - 950 calories
Quizno's Classic Cobb - 1050 calories (71 grams of fat!!!!)
Ruby Tuesday's Carolina Chicken salad - 1400 calories
Chili's Boneless Buffalo salad - 1070 calories
Chili's Quesadilla Explosion salad - 1380 calories
Chevy's Fresh Mex Tostada Salad with Chicken, Carnitas or Steak - 1720 calories

For perspective, a Whopper with cheese and mayo is 760 calories, and a Big Mac is only 560!

There are certainly healthy salads out there, but just be careful.  Salads can be sheep in wolves clothing!  :)

Happy Days are here again

LOL - I don't have that going on, but I do have a nasty bloat and an appetite out of Oliver Twist.  I feel like a hungry animal when I eat.  Then my food gets stuck.  LOL - it's quite a cycle.

I'm achy and tired.  I hurt my back moving a filing cabinet yesterday, and it's not helping.  Between the bloat and a few bad choices, I'm not doing very well on the scale...  Each day, I wake up with the intent of being a good girl, but then as the day wears on, I get sloppier with my choices.

I only have this struggle when I'm sick or PMSing.   It's not right.  I need an antedote.  I'm not overly concerned because I was just losing and gaining the same weight over and over again even when I was being perfect, so I'm not sure what the difference is, although I do hate it when I eat bad food.

I'm going to do my best again today.

Someone has a case of the Mondays

LOL

I almost didn't blog this morning because I'm so tired.  It was funny reading Alison's and TJ's blogs because they said the exact same thing.  I have no reason to be tired at all.  I was in bed early, I had a fairly relaxing day yesterday, I'm not sick (that I know of - LOL), but I'm super duper tired.

I have to give a 90 minute presentation today, and I can't possibly imagine moving my mouth that long.  I can't even open it right now.

I had a good weekend.  We had a great workout on Saturday.  I didn't eat great yesterday, but it was my naughty day.  I don't think those help, but since I'm not losing, I can't imagine they hurt either.

Tonight I'm going out for dinner with a coworker, and I'm not sure where we are going to eat.  I want to have something healthy, and that's always a challenge at a restaurant.  I don't know where we are going yet, so I can't plan for my healthy choice yet.

I'm going to crack open a diet coke because I feel like I'm seriously about to nod off.  :)

Lunchables

Do you remember Lunchables? They are this Kraft "food" that came out when I was a kid - mainly designed for lazy parents who don't see serving overly processed, high in saturated fat and sodium foods to their kids as the child abuse that it is...

When I was a kid, they didn't have many combinations, mainly just ham, cheese and crackers that you assemble into mini sandwiches. Now they have tons of different options.

I mention this because, I'm sad to say, I just consumed one for breakfast. It was utterly disgusting. I didn't bring any food with me today because I'm meeting people for a business lunch, and it's cereal vending machine day, which I look forward to. LOL

For some reason, the vending machine was out of cereal. My choices were ramen noodles, a blueberry muffin, a sub, egg salad sandwich, or ravioli. The blueberry muffin would have probably been better from a saturated fat and sodium standpoint, but there are a lot more calories, so I chose the least of many evils.

It's sitting in my stomach like a brick right now. Ew. I hate unhealthy food. From now on, I'll need to bring some back up breakfast options in case they are out of cereal again. What a shame. :)

Of course I was up some weight today, but at least I got to enjoy yesterday. Tonight we are swimming, tomorrow we have kickboxing, and Sunday (depending on my knee and the weather), I would like to go hiking.

We will keep plugging away...

Working out

Our trainer had us start out our workout with 10 mins of cardio yesterday to get us warmed up.  I was so aggravated for being up 6 lbs since Sat (7 lbs from the previous Sunday), feeling like junk, etc...  as I sat there on the treadmill, I kept repeating the following verse in my head:

This sucks
I'm fat
This won't change
Any of that

LOL - very motivating.  ;)

So you have an idea of where I was when my workout started yesterday...  but I must tell you, by the end of the workout, I felt great.  I love those endorphins!  :)  I sweat a ton, I did things I didn't know I could, I had FUN, and it was just a really good thing.  I needed that.

In fact, we're thinking of setting up 4x/week sessions with her.  It's a lot of money, but I love it, and I think it could really work for us.  That way, we'll have our 4 weekly workouts set, and then we'd just have to do one day/week on our own - we can take the other 2 days off if we want, or not. 

After our workout, Stephanie and Carolyn had us over for a wonderful Chicken Marsala dinner.  It was a WW recipe, and it was fantastic!  Unfortunately, I've been so tight this week, I couldn't keep any of it down.  Before dinner, I was starving, so I had 4 crackers with 3 pieces of cheese.  That was my dinner, and that is probably why I was down 6 lbs today.

I know how I've been lately which means I'll be up some or all of it again tomorrow, only so I can lose it all again in a few more days, but for today, I'm going to be happy knowing I'm down 10 lbs from 2 weeks ago, and my goal to lose 80 lbs is currently down to 70. 

For those of you who have been asking about a fill - I don't have an update.  I need to schedule an appointment, but right now I'm not feeling a sense of urgency because I've been so tight lately - I have trouble getting anything normal down.

I had a single serving bag of popcorn for breakfast today because I knew it would go down.  I am sure a fill won't hurt, but I'm not having trouble sticking to my calories, so I don't know what difference it will make.  I feel a good amount of restriction, and I keep to under 1000 calories/day...  I guess 600 would be better...

Anyway, for today, I'm happy.  When I gain today's loss back tomorrow, I won't be.  :)  Heads up!

Life at 96

I think I hurt my back at the gym on Monday...the part that I fell on last year.  It started to really bother me last night, and today it's just bad. 

Kickboxing should be interesting tonight - my back is killing me and I forgot my knee brace.  It shouldn't matter too much about the knee brace because I think we are focusing on arms and chest, but I'm worried about hurting my back even more.  Oh well!

Not only am I not losing weight, but exercising is causing me injury and pain.  I'm not really seeing an upside to all this.  ;-)

I was up 3 more lbs today.  That's up a total of 6 from the weekend.  I know I must be starting to PMS, because I'm bloated for no reason, extra tired, sore and more aggravated by this all than I normally would be.

I'm not sure that knowledge is helping, though.  :)

The other red meat

Bison, baby.  Have you tried it?  It's good!

Darcy and I picked up some ground bison from our local organic market, and we had it mixed in with some whole grain acine de pepe and just a touch of light butter.  It was delicious.  Did you know bison has half the fat and calories of cows?  It's tastey, tender, and good for you! 

All bison are naturally grass fed, so think outside of the box, and give it a try!  Your mouth, heart, and waist will thank you.

:)

Ain't that the truth

Yesterday was exhausting.  It was a *crazy* day at work, and by the time I got home, I was completely exhausted.  I had dinner and headed out to the gym.  My plan was to do arms/chest for 30 mins, and then head to the pool for my 40 minutes of cardio.  I only made it through the first half of the plan.

It was all I could do to get through the exercises.  I don't know why, but I had ZERO energy.  When I got home from the gym, I was largely non-verbal for the rest of the night.  I tried to do some homework, but I keep having a problem with my computer, so I'm unable to complete one of the assignments I've been working on forever.  Aggravating.

I curled up on the couch and watched tv, and headed up to bed at 8:56.  I'm feeling on the tired side again today, and I have no idea why.  I don't feel sick, my allergies aren't bothering me, I think maybe I just need some time to relax.  I haven't had that in a while.

I have a crazy busy work week ahead of me, and I think I need some caffeine.

I couldn't keep my lunch down yesterday (I know, ew), so I was starving when I got home.  I probably had twice as much dinner as I'm supposed to have, but I was so hungry, I kept eating.  I was still under 1000 calories for the day, but of course, we had pasta for dinner, so I didn't lose any of the 3 lbs that I was up yesterday.

I'm down 7 lbs, and I keep losing the same weight over and over and over again.  I can't seem to get past it.  I have been working out hard and faithfully, keeping my calories low, taking vitamins, getting in tons of water, cutting out empty calories, and still, I feel like I'm trapped in a Bermuda triangle of weight.

It was really hard to get to the gym last night, feeling as tired as I did, and knowing I'm not really losing...but I went...and right now I can't imagine what good it did...although when we do arms/chest with our trainer this week, I know I'll be glad I got a work out in mid week to build my strength up, and I'm hoping I don't have the same reaction as I did last time we did arms/chest.  LOL

My sister suggested measuring inches, and I have been, but I haven't seen a difference in those either since a few weeks ago when I saw a pretty good change.  I didn't measure inches this week yet, though, so I'll try that tomorrow.

Better than a fribble...

Yesterday, we were in MA visiting Darcy's new little nephew, and we decided to have a nice Italian lunch.  Our favorite place in the area was closed due to renovations, so we went to Felicia's - Alison's fave.  I've never been very wowed by Felicia's, but my lunch yesterday was quite yummy.  I had Pollo Ponte Veccio - Boneless breast of chicken topped with prosciutto and fontina cheese, sauteed with mushrooms and artichoke hearts in a marsala wine sauce over angel hair pasta.

Yum.  I give myself one discretionary calorie day/week, and that day was yesterday.  I can't believe how big their portions are.  I have a rule that if I get something unhealthy at a restaurant, I eat a small portion in the restaurant, and I don't take the left overs home with me.  I probably got through a quarter of the meal, and then I had them throw away the rest.  I felt really bad - you couldn't even tell I'd eaten any of it...but I had!

The waitress looked at me in a pouty way, asking me if I was sure I couldn't take it with me - there was so much left!  I told her (in a nice way) that their portion sizes are way too big.  Seriously - why in the world would a meal need to be THAT big.  It's such a waste of food - do American's really still choose restaurants based on portion sizes?

I remember being younger, hearing older people talk about how great a certain restaurant was because of portion sizes, but I think we're all a lot more health conscious now than we used to be, so why are the portion sizes still so big??  I prefer a nice, appropriate sized, high quality food serving, and I'm not at all impressed by big food sizes.  It's wasteful and disgusting.

I know most people like leftovers, and that's probably somewhat of a draw, but why eat an unhealthy meal more than once?  Wasn't once enough?  I don't get it.

Someday, if/when I have a restaurant, I'm going to serve high quality foods, grass fed, local, chemical free, nothing processed, appropriate portions and nutrition information readily available.  I wish there was a restaurant like that near me now. 

Anyway, it was a nice change of pace to have a nice Italian meal.  I watched my portions, but I ended up at about 1350 calories for the day yesterday.  As my sister suggested, I should spike my calories once/week to keep my metabolism guessing.  I think that can be a good idea, as long as I don't get carried away.

Naturally, I was up 3 lbs today, but I knew I would be - pasta makes me bloated.  I'm sure it will be gone tomorrow, and hopefully, I can get back down to my low point from last week, and then lose more from there.

Grrrr.

So, one week ago, I weighed one lb less than I do today.  Yup, I've gained a lb this past week.  I didn't even have dinner last night, and I'm still not down to my low point.

For a recap, last Sunday AM, I hit a low that I hadn't hit in months.  Last Monday, I was up 6 lbs from that low.  It took me the past week to re-lose (once again) 5 of those 6 lbs, and I'm still not as low as I was last week.

This is actually quite annoying.  I think I am going go to have a fribble now.

Let's get Jolly!

I have been eating the Orville R's Smart Pop 100 calorie single serving bags of popcorn for 2 years now.  They are a nice, light snack, and it was a good way to get in 4 grams of fiber, which is always a tricky one for me to stay on track with.

Someone in my office has been making this Jolly Time popcorn for months now, and it smelled so good - I assumed it was full fat.  Just last week - she told me it was only one point, so I looked at the nutrition information, and saw it has 9 grams of fiber!!  It's made with whole grain corn.

Darcy picked me up a box, and let me tell you - it's one thousand times better than that cardboard I had been eating all along.  It's still clearly a light popcorn, and the serving size is small, but it's quite tasty, and a great source of natural fiber!  I'm sold.

I can't seem to lose weight.  I was about the same weight today (possibly 1 lb higher) than I was last Saturday.  I know I'm down 8-9 lbs in the past week and a half, but I was down that weight last Saturday.  It's not fun to work so hard and to not see a change in the scale.

I'm focusing on the positive, though.  My clothes are fitting better, I'm hardwired to workout each day, and I know if I stick with it, I'm going to see results eventually.  I'm on the express train to fitness...my body just hasn't gotten the memo yet.  ;-)

I ended up doing 30 mins of yoga only yesterday - no swimming.  My arms were so bad, Darcy wanted me to go to the hospital - LOL.  By the end of the day, I couldn't touch my right arm to my face at all.   Thank God for that hot tub - the 15 minutes I spent in there were the only reprieve from the constant pain that I had all day.

My arms were so tight, they were emitting tons of heat.  Today, they are still very sore, but they aren't as bad as yesterday.  I'm going to the store in a few minutes to pick up some advil.  Hopefully that will help a bit.

Today is a full day:  errands - now, kickboxing/training at 10, then homework (lots, yuck), work work, visit little baby boy!, clean house, see Brooke - when can I fit in apple picking???  :)

There are truly never enough hours in the day!

Oooooooooooooooooow

(Can't do pics on the blog on Friday's - the PC I use is missing something.)

I thought I was sore yesterday, but that was NUTTIN compared to today. I could barely wash my hair - it hurts so much to bend my arms.

I was in a meeting first thing this morning, and I had an itch on my face. I was trying to bring my hand up to my face to scratch it, and it hurt so bad, it took forever to get there. I can't imagine what I must have looked like. LOL

I skipped my work out yesterday. I didn't want to, but it just happened. My arms were very sore, and my knee was really bothering me so I figured if I was going to take a day off (which I know I need to from time to time), it was a good day.

That is what I thought before I met today. Today, my knee is still completely stiff, and I can't move my arms. I can't take 2 days off in a row, so I'm open to suggestions from my readers!

Swimming is out. There's no way my arms will make it. I'm thinking exercise bike, but I have to be somewhat careful with my knee because we are doing legs with our trainer in the AM, and I want to be in good shape (as much as possible) for that.

Today is going to be a calorie challenge. I already accidentally had frosted flakes for breakfast,

PAUSE

How does one accidentally eat a sugary breakfast cereal for breakfast? In the building I work in on Friday's, there is a vending machine that has cereal and milk, even skim milk. I love this because if I'm running late, I can get a healthy breakfast here.

It was too early for me to eat breakfast before leaving for my meeting at the hospital, so when I got into this office after that, I went to the vending machine to get cereal. There are usually quite a few options, but today, they only had corn flakes and frosted flakes.

I used to LOVE frosted flakes as a kid. This is a weird vending machine. You put the money in, and then press the mechanical arrows to get the food to rotate around. When your selection is in front of you, you slide open a little window and take it out.

For some reason, I thought if I left the window open, I could put my selection back and keep browsing. Ah, no.

So I pulled out the FF to see the nutrition information, and they had 70 more calories than the corn flakes - *not* worth it to me at all. I tried to put them back, but it wouldn't let me.

Now, as a person who wastes far too much money, I don't know why it didn't occur to me until just now, as I type, that I could have just bought the corn flakes too and left the frosted flakes for someone else to take off the counter. I'm an idiot.

So with the skim milk, my breakfast was 300 calories. I'm usually around 150, so now I'm starting off in the hole.

We are having lunch today at La Caretta's, which means I'll get my steak taco salad that I adore. It's not terrible for you, but red meat is high in calories, cheese and sour cream add up quickly too.

I already have a strategy, and I've already put my calories in for my lunch:

I'm going to set aside 3 oz of red meat and put the rest on another plate, I'm going to eyeball one oz of cheese, 1/4 cup of sour cream and put the remaining cheese and sour cream on the other plate as well. It will still then be a 477 calorie lunch, which is much higher than usual, but we are going to have salad and sushi for dinner, so my dinner will be less than 200 calories, and it will all work out to a 937 calorie day, unless I am hungry for a snack, and then I'll have a banana.

Yes, TJ, it does take a lot of planning to make this all work.

LOL

Last night I did something I never do - I had a snack at 9:30.

I had dinner at 4:45, got my hair cut, met up with Brooke, and ended up spending more time with her than originally planned. By 9:30, I was starving, so I had a 100 calorie bag of popcorn.

I was up 8 lbs last night as compared to the morning, and I was very annoyed, but this morning, the 8 lbs were gone and I weighed the same weight as yesterday morning, so I'm still down 9 lbs total.

My weight fluctuation is ridiculous, and yes, I weigh myself too much.

It's official

I bought the gloves, so I must be serious about this kickboxing thing.  :)  That's what my instructor said last night - she must not know how I operate.  Purchase does not equal commitment, sadly.

However, I'm *really* enjoying the workouts.  She's great to work out with - she pushes us hard, but not too hard.  I keep thinking I can't possibly do the next thing she's asking me to do, but I can!  Working out with a GOOD personal trainer can make all the difference - especially if you aren't a pro.

She doesn't just show us how to use the machines or teach us exercises, she watches us, making sure we're doing it right, encouraging us when it's hard, ensuring our techniques are correct...that's how it should be.  As we were wrapping up our session last night, a kickboxing class was starting.

It was a nice reminder of how far away I am from being ready to join one of those classes, but I do think that I could be ready after our 6 weeks of sessions with her. I felt better in just half a week of doing her perscribed workout, and I'm hoping that by Saturday, I'll be even that much closer.

I am having trouble typing today because it hurts my biceps - lol - but I'll make it. 

If you are struggling with getting into a good routine, I can't say enough about the worth of a good trainer.

Chicken Tacos

We had chicken tacos for dinner last night - easy to prepare, and always a yummy and fun treat!  We used the left over chicken from our chicken dinner this weekend and prepared the chicken chunks in taco seasoning.  For sides, we had salsa (always fat free), fresh tomatoes (phenomenal, as they should be for $3/each), lettuce, low fat cheese, and Fage fat free greek yogurt, in place of sour cream.

We used the organic, wheat free, corn tortillas, which were 120 calories for 2.  I think 2 tacos worked out to be about 300 calories.

I am the biggest loser

Yesterday, we had a *great* workout.  First, our trainer started us off with weight trainings for arms (and boy, are they throbbing today!), and then we did kickboxing.  I overexerted, and my knee was really sore by the end of the work out.

We got home at 6, had *delicious* chicken tacos (will post more on that later), and we settled in to watch the Biggest Loser, taped from the night before.  I think the show is ridiculous and irresponsible, as I've said before, but I still like to see how hard they push the contestants, because it makes me think that I can work out just as hard.

In that line, they were showing this very fit contestant jumping up onto a high platform.  It was *really* impressive.  I decided that I should try jumping on my ottoman, even though my knee was sore.  I thought - if that guy can jump onto a 3 foot platform (without a running start), I should be able to jump up on my 1 foot high ottoman.

Of course, I was already exhausted from my workout, but I just had to try.  I jumped up with all my might, and at the last minute, while I was up in the air, I chickened out, and put my knees underneath my body and my whole weight landed on my knees as I landed, kneeling, on the ottoman.  LOL - Darcy couldn't fathom what had possessed me to land on my knees like that, even when I explained to her that I had chickened out.

I heard a nice crunch, and obviously, I hurt my knee even more, which is why I am truly, the biggest LOSER.  I should have iced it, but it didn't even occur to me.  We went in the hot tub last night, so that was heaven for our sore muscles.

The good news is, I don't think I did anything majorly wrong to my knee.  It's stiff and sore today, but I have a feeling it is going to heal just fine by tomorrow or Saturday (hopefully by Saturday because we're focusing on legs!).

I have *no* idea when I'm going to fit my work out in today.  I realize that I can take a day off, but I really don't want to.  At the very least, since my body is in pain, I want to do swimming.  It's a great cardio workout if you push yourself constantly, and I do.  It's also very low impact on the joints.  I may even swim without using my injured leg tonight.

I have a very busy work day, followed by a hair appt at 5:15, and sometime after that and before 7, I think I'm going to see Brooke briefly, who is home for a weekend visit, and then I have to watch a movie for school so that I can write a paper that's due tomorrow, plus a bunch of other homework.

If Brooke isn't able to meet me between 6-7, that's when I'll work out, but if she is, then I'm thinking I'll head to the pool at 7, be home by 8, watch the movie from 8-10 and write the paper while I'm watching it, as well as doing the other homework while the movie is on.  It can work.

I've been trying to be in bed by 10 so that I can get the rest I need to be healthy and energized.  It's hard to do, but it seems to be working.  I just need to figure out when in the world I'm fitting dinner in to all of this.  Brooke is meeting other friends for dinner at 7:30, so I can't do dinner with her, although that would be quite convenient!

I think I'll have to get home by 4:40 - change, eat an early dinner from 4:50-5:10 and then be at the hairdressers for 5:15. 

TJ commented recently that he can't believe how much planning goes into this dieting thing.  LOL.  No kidding!!!  That's why when I had all the success, I had to make losing weight my top priority, and when I wasn't able to, I stopped losing.

I'm hoping that maintaining won't be quite so much work, but that's a long ways off!

Today I was down 4 lbs from yesterday, so I'm down 9 lbs total since last Wednesday. 

Oy.

I was up 2 lbs from yesterday, so my one week anniversary of being fitness and nutrition crazy leaves me at 5 lbs lost - during the week, at my lowest point, I was down 11 lbs.  5 lbs in one week is not a bad thing...11 is better.

Last night, I got home from work at 8PM, and it was my day off from working out (according to my trainer), but somehow, I felt like my day wasn't done until I got my workout in.  LOL - TJ has been saying this mantra to me for 2 years now, and the fact that I worked out 7 days in a row without a break must finally be allowing the concept to seep into my brain.

I really wanted to go for a swim, so I got 30 minutes of cardio in last night, swimming at a good clip.  I got home around 9:10, watched 30 minutes of TV and was in bed by 10.  I woke up today feeling pretty well rested.  I think I'm rounding the corner on these allergies, and the medicine definitely helped with the sinus infection.

Yesterday, I was very busy, and I consumed 735 calories.  I didn't eat anything after 5:30 pm, and I was very cautious about my sodium.  Last night, I weighed myself, and I weighed 2 lbs more than I did in the AM, which appeared to be good news because I usually weigh 3-4 lbs more at night than I do in the AM, so I thought it was safe to say I would be down at least 1 -2 more lbs today. 

Somehow, when I got up this morning, I weighed the same as I did last night!  That never happens.  I don't know what's going on - if it's muscles growing, or all the water I'm drinking...if it's the vitamins I've just started taking...I'm going to talk to my trainer tonight, but I know she's not a nutritionist, and she's just going to say I need to consume way more calories than I'm taking in now...but every time I've done that, I've gained...no thanks.

So here I sit...eating a disgusing Kashi trail mix bar for breakfast.  Some people like them - I hate them.  I eat things I don't like if they are healthy.  I realize not everyone feels as though they are able to do that, so I guess that's bully for me!

I like eating healthy and working out regularly.  I feel much healthier, so even though I'm not seeing as much of a difference on the scale as I would like, and even though I appear to be gaining weight for no reason, I'm staying the course, and I know it will start to work soon enough.  5 lbs down in one week is nothing to ignore.

(11 lbs would be better.  LOL)

Monday's don't deserve to be this yummy

We had dinner at one of our neighbor's houses last night, and it was so good, I'm still in awe!  They know we are planning a trip to Tuscany, so the night had a Tuscan theme.  We started out with a salad of mixed greens, scallions, pear, pomegranate seeds, and goat cheese.  It was so flavorful!  I'm sometimes shy about mixing fruits with vegetables, but this combination was delightful and a flavor sensation.

The entree was actually from a Cooking Light Recipe, but our host prepared it even better by using pappardelle (I think) wide noodles.  This recipe includes porcini mushrooms, shallots, an exotic mushroom blend, minced garlic, chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, heavy whipping cream, fresh sage, truffle oil, etc...  It was to die for.  I kept my portion fairly small, so it was about 400 calories.  I can't imagine what the full fat version would be.  This was one of the best meals I have had in a long time.  If you try the recipe (as I'm going to), let me know what you think!!

Of course they offered us dessert as well, and they served us creamy gourmet vanilla ice cream topped with melted mexican chocolate and fresh strawberries.  LOL - it was sinfully delicious, and *not* a cooking light recipe.  I have been avoiding empty calories, but this was well worth the exception.  I kept my portion size small, and my calories for the day yesterday were about 1250 - a miracle considering this dinner I had.

Let me tell you - Tuesday is going to have a lot to live up to at this point.  ;-)

We managed to get our work out in before the dinner.  We went to the pool, and I got about 45 minutes of cardio in - I also did all the rest of the work out in the pool.  Combining my cardio with the rest of the exercises is probably cheating, but as sore as I was, and as little time as I had, I did my best.  Today is a day of rest for me, according to my trainer, but I may get 30-40 minutes of swimming in.  It's low impact, a good calorie burner, and it won't throw me off for my training tomorrow.  Plus, I still have calories to burn from last night.  :)

This week is full of challenges for me.  I have a business lunch today at Friday's, of all places.  Friday's is terrible about sharing their nutrition information, so I only have a very limited selection to choose from, based upon the few dishes I can find the nutrition information for.  I think I will order the turkey burger on a whole wheat bun (410 calories) with no cheese or mayo, and I will use mustard to make it wet enough to swallow.  I'll eat half of that and have a side salad instead of fries.  Salad (and light dressing) + half the burger will put me at about 300 calories for lunch, which is fine.  I probably won't like the food, but I'll get the protein, whole grains and veggies in that I need, so that's what counts.

I have a lot of work to do today, so I'm planning to work late, get a swim in, get started on some homework, and then have an hour to relax before I go to bed and start this whole thing all over again.

I was down 3 of the 6 lbs I was up from yesterday, so I'm officially down 8 lbs for the past 5 or 6 days, and I'm hoping to be down the other 3 tomorrow, to have an 11 lb loss for week 1.  Then I'll totally feel like a legit biggest loser contestant.  ;-)

Healthy Comfort Food

We had the girls over for dinner on Saturday night, and I read them a list of choices from my meal plan for the week to see what they wanted me to make.  They picked the chicken dinner.  A chicken dinner can be very high in fat and calories, but it doesn't have to me.

First off, by purchasing grass fed, free range, antibiotic free chicken, you are skimming up to 1/3 of the fat and calories over the grain fed versions right there alone...not to mention that depending upon the chicken/brand/etc, you will be getting 2-4 times the Omega-3s. 

Normally, I make a chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy, made from the drippings...and don't forget about the rolls with butter...  Instead, we started off with a garden salad, and then I baked a roasted vegetable medley with sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and some white potatoes.  That way, you're getting a much smaller portion of the white potato, and you're mixing it in with the much healthier carrots and sweet potatoes, while still getting that comforty starch. 

For gravy, I didn't use any of the drippings - I purchased gravy that was low in fat and calories, and I watered it down a little bit and seasoned it, so it was light, but tasty, and that was our meal.  I pan roasted 2 trays of veggies before cooking the chicken, and I seasoned them with thyme, ground pepper, garlic salt, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh basil, dried basil and oregano.  They came out fantasic.  When the chicken only had 30 minutes left, I combined one pan of the roasted vegatbles in with the chicken to cook in the juices, but I chose to eat the veggies that didn't soak in any of the chicken - they were plenty flavorful without the little bit of added fat.

The girls couldn't get over what a delicous meal it was, and how healthy it was. They also commented on the difference they could taste in the chicken.  I was delighted to have company over for a very healthy meal that passed the taste test!

Oooooooooooooooooooowwwwww

The kickboxing work out was awesome.  She really kicked our butts!  I loved it, though.  When I got out of bed yesterday morning, it felt like every muscle in my body was throbbing.

Our trainer emailed me a workout routine for us to do in the off days when we're not with her, so yesterday, stiff and sore, I muscled through her work out again.  She told us to take Tuesday off from working out, so that we'll be rested up when we see her on Wednesday, but I may have to take today off.

It hurts to type.  LOL.  It hurts to sit in my chair.  We'll see how the day goes, but I will probably just push on through and get the work out in today and take tomorrow off.

Have you jump roped recently?  I don't know about you, but I find it extremely difficult and impossible to catch my breath.  LOL - I can't believe that was fun for me when I was younger.  She has us jumping rope, doing push ups, sit ups, and all these other kicks and punches, and on top of all that, 40 minutes of cardio each day.

I used muscles I hadn't used in a *long* time, and they are making noise now!

I should have blogged yesterday.  I started to, but I lose the oomf.  Yesterday I was down 2 more lbs for a total of 11 lbs in 2 days, bringing me down to 69 lbs to lose.  It was very exciting.  :)

Today, I'm up 6 lbs from yesterday.  Huh???  It's so annoying.  I think it's a combination of a few things:  I had to get up extra early today, so I weighed more than I did yesterday when I got up 3-4 hrs later than I did today, I most likely had too much sodium yesterday, I had some potatoes yesterday, and they make me bloated, and I'm just destined to be fat.  Just kidding on the last one, but seriously - I've been working out *so* hard, and I've been perfect with my eating - to see the scale jump that much in one day is completely annoying.

Anyway, I'm going to watch the sodium very closely today, and hopefully the 6 lbs will be gone tomorrow.  I've gained and lost these same lbs enough - can't I just move past this part?

Oh, and yesterday, I hit a lower number on the scale than I'd been in months.  I felt like I was finally getting somewhere!...until this morning...

For some reason, I didn't sleep well last night.  Knowing I had to get up extra early, I should have gone to bed earlier, but I'm too addicted to Dexter to not watch it, and I have to watch something after it so I don't have nightmares.  I was in bed by 11, but I was tossing and turning all night.  When I did fall asleep, I had really annoying, depressing dreams - so unlike me! 

I have major luggage under my eyes today, and I need some caffeine in a big way.  I have *so* much work to do, and I can't stay late today, because we have a lake association dinner tonight at 6ish, and I need to get my hour+ long work out in ahead of time. 

Today is a day I'd like to fast forward through.  I know I should treasure every day of my life, but today is one of the days that's the dig before you find the treasure.  :)

Sushi Sabotage

We had phenomenal sushi last night.  Well, I had 2 pieces.  I had planned to eat 3, but Stephanie ordered a delicious, fattening "ocean roll" which was crab and shrimp with a bunch of tempura mixed in, and all sorts of naughtiness, so even though one bite size is fairly small, I figured it counted for at least 2 pieces of sushi.  Since I had only budgeted 3 pieces in my journal, I stopped eating at that point.

I had a salad with oil free ginger dressing before the sushi came out, and I skipped out on the vegetable tempura, so all in all I think I did fine.  I requested the low sodium soy sauce, as I usually do, and I didn't think anything of using it.

Later last night, it occurred to me that I should have skipped the soy sauce altogether.  After all, we were eating at 7:30 PM which is a no-no to begin with - the last thing I need is to add is sodium at that hour!  Oh well, I'm still retraining myself, and there will be opporutnites for improvement along the way.  Even the type A's have a learning curve!  :)

After sushi, we went to the arcade.  I tried to pick the active things to do:  basketball, soccer, dance-dance-revolution, even skee ball is better than just standing in front of a machine, so that's how I spent the night.  Stephanie wanted to do the pedestal jousting, and Carolyn didn't, so I did it with her (pictures to be uploaded soon!). 

I can't tell you what a work out it is for us fatties!  I think it seriously gave me an asthma attack.  I don't know if it's because the gear weighs you down, or because you aren't on solid ground, but it's exhausting.  Stephanie and I were both ridiculously out of breath.  I can't wait to try it again when I've lost a good chunk of weight to see the difference.

So last night went as planned - I came home from work and had my protein/whole grain small snack that held me over quite well until our late (for me) dinner at 7:30.  I went to the gym, and I fought being there the whole time.  I was feeling so run down and tired - it took me 4 cardio machines to get my 35 minutes in.  LOL.  At the 20 minute mark, I really wanted to quit, but I told myself if I didn't get at least 30 minutes of intense cardio in, it doesn't count as a work out so I'd have to consider it my day off for the week, and I certainly wasn't willing to do that after already fighting to put 20 minutes in, so I kept on to the 35 minute mark. 

At our late dinner, I was careful to consume only 150 calories, so even though I had to eat late, I kept it to a minimum.  I was worried about the scale today.  The combination of eating after 7 and having soy sauce after 7 was worrying me that I was going to gain weight.  I know that weight fluctuates, but I've been trying *so* hard to eat perfectly, work out faithfully, incorporate more movement and exercise into my day...it's just too early for a set back.

Thankfully, my fears were not realized, and I was down 2 lbs today.  I'm down 9 lbs in 3 days, and I think the overall picture is looking good at this point.  So my goal was to lose 80 lbs by 8/12/10.  I'm down 9, and I have 71 to go.  I'm thinking I can make this work!

I'm *really* looking forward to my kickboxing training today.  I have a 1 hour workout scheduled with our new personal trainer, and I am looking forward to her kicking my butt and helping me to develop a daily workout regimen that will maximize my opportunity for weight loss. 

On the food front for today, I have designtated today as my one day this week that I can have empty calories within reason.  I still wouldn't want to exceed 1200 calories for my "high" day at this point, and I may not choose to have any, but I know that making yourself feel deprived is a recipe for disaster, so if I want to have a little treat, God love me, I can.  :)

My meal plan for today:
Caration Instant Breakfast shake with banana:  250 calories
3 oz beef, whole grain pilaf and salad for lunch:  300 calories
Veggies and hummus for afternoon snack:  70 calories
Vegetable rice with chicken for dinner (1 c rice, 3oz chicken):  350 calories

Total calories for the day (without empty calories so far):  970

There goes that number, creeping up!  Yesterday 930, today 970.  I'm working out for an hour today, so I think it will be fine, but I'm watching that scale!